Guiders Staff Room Part 3

Thanks Inflagrante and Becles for your replies. I seem to recall this being discussed at a District meeting years ago. I was new to Guiding and didn’t really understand what was being debated so didn’t get involved but do remember it all got a bit heated with cross faces. This was back in the day of paper waiting lists and so I used the same policy (Parish only) as Brownies and Guides. Since everything went on line and it’s quite transparent which units have spaces available or are full I can’t see how it’s fair and equitable not to take girls who want to join but live outside the area if their closest units are full.

No there is no agreement with the church re rent and places.

Frustrating that I can’t find a document in the policies section on the website. Concerned that if I involve the DC it will potentially affect relationship with Brownie and Guide leaders.

@ScribblyGum Do Brownies and Guides have closed units / mutually beneficial relationship with the Church in exchange for better rent?

If not then the DC needs to discuss at the District meeting so that you all have a plan for your girls. Rainbows don't have priority for me when the Rainbow leader ignores multiple emails asking for an idea of numbers coming up (almost every term) and then flex when places already offered.

Oh gosh, that all sounds very messy. In our district we have a different problem. Since the next town's rainbows (over the county border) closed, one of our rainbow units is getting applications from all over - 30mins drive away type all over. Rainbow leader has been told she's not allowed to prioritise girls from the village. So maybe contact county for clarification?

Welcome, BTW

Brownie holiday this weekend. So not prepared. And to top it all, I mixed up two open orders on my online shop account, and ended up with 12 bottles of milk to my home address last weekend. Oops!

Thanks for your reply Becles. It’s a somewhat complicated issue and I'm keen to try and avoid upset between fellow Guiders but also of my own Rainbows and their parents.

I lead a Rainbows unit in a rural village and don’t have any policy regarding accepting girls onto my units waiting list, first come first served until I'm full. The Brownie and Guide packs however have a very long running policy of only accepting girls onto the waiting list if they live in the Parish. They will accept girls if they have spaces but this rarely happens as they are popular units. A previous Guider who helped out at my unit said this sort of policy was not allowed.
It’s not really been a problem until this year where for some reason I have a number of Rainbows who live outside the Parish who all want to move up to the village Brownies unit with the friends they’ve made who do live in the Parish.
I'm anticipating potential upset (and cross parents) and just want to get some clarity from GGUK re waiting list policies. Website is not being very forthcoming!

Welcome! Each unit can set its own policy as long as fairly consistently applied - what's your question?

I'm Brownies and do Brownies from outside the District / outside the neighbouring District, Rainbows, length of time on the waiting list (as long as over 7 when I'm looking at a start date.) Occasionally though I will go for a younger / older girl on the waiting list who's not been on for long to have an age balance.

We don't accept district transfers unless both leaders agree there's a good reason. We have very pushy and sneaky parents who used to start at one unit and then demand a transfer to the Brownie or Guide unit with a massive list.

Hello, Rainbow guider here. I didn’t know about this thread until it was linked to on the subs and new programme thread.
Can anyone here point me in the right direction for finding the policy for accepting girls onto the waiting list? I'm going out of my mind on the GG website trying to find information on the rules of including or excluding requests to join. I know how to do it all on GO but need clarification on an official policy if rejecting girls from the waiting list is permitted for any reason other than “we are full”?
I’m not rejecting anyone btw, I’m just trying to understand if another local unit it allowed to (based on address).
Thanks

Oops that turned out a bit long

Hi! Never realised there was a Guider's thread on here

I do Rainbows and Guides (and also sometimes help with Brownie stuff as that goes on at the same time and place as Rainbows). We are about to open a Rangers unit to run alongside Guides too as a few of our girls are slightly outgrowing Guides and there are no other local SS/Rangers groups. Waiting for DC to do new unit grant application so fingers crossed for that. It would be great to hear from anyone else involved in Rangers/SS.

I think I have just about got my head round the new programme. Other than the more limited variety of interest badges for Brownies and Guides, I'm quite enthusiastic. Perhaps they will add more interest badges in the future. I like the idea of Skills Builders running right through all the sections (not so sure about practicality) and also the theme awards. Agree with a PP that there should be a bit of choice of clauses within badges too.

Also I think there should be some way for girls to do interest badges during meetings as in my units (and many others I'm sure) there is a huge disparity between the supportiveness of parents. I will have to think about how to support these girls especially.

On our first meeting back we didn't touch the new programme with Guides - lots of admin-y stuff to do like juggling patrols around and then a helper ran a long er than expected game. I think I dive into it properly next week with some taster UMAs and then give them a chance to look at the different interest badges etc.

At Rainbows we are starting with the Know Myself theme. They each chose which Skills Builder (all starting at stage 1) and which interest badge they want to do and they will work in two small groups. We will start on the SBs next week I think along with a UMA maybe.

I think they get allocated the role by a secret, magical ballot :)

Grovee - how did it go?

We're not back until a week on Monday (local state school went back late), but plan to do a few of the new activities this term.

I do have issues with a few of them in the skill builders especially, but as someone else pointed out, we never did the activities in the Roundabouts exactly as they were written anyway!

I’m doing a skills builders activity next week, along with a more general (but using similar equipment) activity city from the cards.

The girls are really excited by the badges. They are already planning how to achieve them all

Welcome back @Chocolala Great timing, you're just in time for all the fun.

Had our planning meeting last night and we're going to struggle with the adjustment a little.

Congrats and welcome Chocolala

Congrats. Just checking in. After a couple of years hanging around the edges, I’m now officially a Rainbow leader in training! 🌈

@Groovee we'll be here with 🍷🍸

Congratulations!

Is that congrats or commiserations?

Hopefully it'll be as calm as it was for your predecessor.

Nice one Groovee.
I've just finished a 5 year term and have moved on to Div Com.

DC is the most difficult of all the Com roles I think. It's really a line management role.

I've had to deal with poisonous plants, allegations of bullying by a Leader, financial fraud, incompetence, and complaints of bad handling of a medical emergency. I even had the Daily Mail phone me for comment!

Good luck

Thank you @MillicentMargaretAmanda! I presumed not but wasn't sure

It's not- The new common programme across the sections, with the six themes, replaces all old section programmes like rainbow jigsaw and Brownie you community and world
:-)